The old contest was between the theatre and cinema. The new contest is between Burning Man and The Internet. # Differences Everything at Burning Man must take place in a unity of space and time, as in theatre. The experience is ephemeral and transient. There is an originality and authenticity that cannot be scaled. The Internet allows jumps in space and time, just like cuts in cinema. The experience is archived and can be easily linked to. The power of the Internet depends on replication and copies, which allows the network to scale rapidly. # Similarities Where the "theatre vs cinema" analogy stops, I suppose, is that both Burning Man and the Internet are participatory forms. They are spaces where people can take on roles and avatars. And they are spaces where weirdos, misfits and tricksters can be accomodated. # Conclusion In 2020, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Burning Man was forced to go online. We were finally able to witness whether the two mediums could be merged. While there were a lot of enthusiastic participants, I had no desire to check it out, so I don't know the answer to this question. My current sentiment is that Burning Man and the Internet are truly bifurcating pathways.